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It's Fun to Play the Piano ... Please Pass It On!

At The Dealer yesterday, this piano was in the same room as a Kawai 6' Grand and a Shigeru Kawai 7' Grand. Now before anyone goes nuttzo, it is important to compare a $3k piano to two far more expensive ones. Boy, the feel, the sound, the experience for a electronic piano sure did well against its far bigger cousins. Is it the same? It can -not- be. Of course. Apples and Oranges. But is it good? It is exceptional. What I heard and felt from all three? I am very satisfied. For the money, the CA95 sounds great compared to either Grand.

First Impressions !!!

- The tactile feedback from keys to fingers is awesome. One can feel the Let-Off, the sound vibration, the weight. All, is very well executed. The keys are slightly lighter to the touch.

- The pure sound from the CA95 is much better than its predecessors (sp).

- The spacing between keys is excellent.

- The music rack is beefier and you need to button up that 1/8" gap better.

- Fit and finish is perfect.

- I sure like the Lcd vs the letters and I like the rearrangement of the buttons.

I wasn't impressed with the sound a week ago.... after a week of playing I'm absolutely loving it.... sounds so much fuller ... maybe the speakers needed to get some use or my ears have become accustomed I don't know... but congrats mate.

From a purely personal perspective, your delight with the CA95 is very encouraging for me as a stage piano player. The described leap in sound fidelity and feel is a great harbinger for what could be around the corner in the slab/stage line. Maybe my skepticism about Kawai ever bringing this level of refinement to their portable DPs is misplaced. I do hope so.

Enjoy your wonderful pianos!

_________________________"you don't need to have been a rabbit in order to become a veterinarian"

I see that you got an excellent price for your CA95 at $3,200. As you did even better than I did at $3,815, although my price included the local sales tax (of $267.05) bringing the total to $4,082.05. My final price included the trade in of two other pianos, a Wurlitzer spinet acoustic (1958), and, Casio AP-620.

Just to compare, it appears that my piano did have a few keys that had uneven key spaces, although I see no problems with them making noise from contact with one another, and, I am glad yours were perfect.

Question:

Are you comfortable with the pedals in regards to how close they are to the player?

As for myself, have had difficulty adjusting to the shallow pedal depth.

The sound is much better. I believe I read somewhere that the internal Cpu/Engine is faster. That may make what I hear a bit more crisp and defined. The new sound sampling also contributes to the better sound.

The transducer has been relocated and the longerons have been redesigned as well. Maybe this helps at the lower volume.

With the Grands I used, their soundboard creates a very voluminous, encircling sound. To reproduce that in an electronic piano would be very difficult.

The keyboard action is slightly lighter - seems more responsive.

By your knees, if I remember correctly, the CA93 had four horizontal openings for the midrange sound to flow thru. The CA95' leftmost slot is missing. This may help channel that sound energy to the soundboard.

An Lcd for the menues makes them far easier to use.

In all, for something at the $3k price point, it has excellent sound and feel. Well done, Kawai and I am glad I upgraded. Again ... Tee hee ...

Congrats to your new CA95. Can I ask you is it worth it to upgrade from CA93 to CA95 with a little more money added? Also, is the difference between the CA65 and CA95 day and night or not big of a difference in terms of touch and sound? Thanks.

Sound Engine, GF vs RM3, more Amplifier wattage, several improvements here and there to the speaker enclosure.

65 vs 95. If using headphones - zero difference. If not, and the volume is 1/3 - 1/2 or better, the soundboard kicks in and it is a much fuller sound.

For all the new features, large and small between the 93/95, it was indeed worth it (for me) to upgrade. Also consider resale value (in this economy) in that the 95 is current manufacture and technology and the 93 is going on 4 years old.

You may also want to search thru some of my other posts as I have provided several insights of mine to the 63 and 93 and 95.

Thank you for your explanation on the differences between the models. I will need to consider the resale value like you mentioned. I overheard that Kawai no longer produces CA93. I think CA95 is the way to go.

If, you are not using earphones, the 65 is typical of so many DP's that have a panel joining the two sides and the primary speakers point down from the bottom of the keyboard.

The 95 is far different in that it has an actual box about 6" thick which houses the soundboard actuator. And, the four midrange speakers point into this box. Their sound mostly coming forward from the front panel. I have described this in more detail in another of my posts.

-That- entire arrangement imho is what really gives this unit a far better sound when playing into a room.

Shop around. You may find that by driving a little ways you might find a Dealer that can save you alot of money.

Was this based on your own experience or just on general common infromation? There are some other opinions:

Originally Posted By: Aeons Holle

Originally Posted By: KarelG

Originally Posted By: Temperament

[...]- despite of opposite claims I thought to hear out a clear advantage with my Sennheiser HD650 headphone in favor of CA95. The difference was not that pronounced as over built in boxes, but I felt definitive to hear less distortions on the CA95.(Would be interesting to hear Jame's feedback to this).[...]

Perhaps this means not only amplifier for speakers, but also amplifier for the headphones are different. The thing with HD650 is that they do have quite high impedance IIRC for which you need a little bit better amplifier.

From my own experience, comparing CA65 and CA95 in the store with my AKG-501, I can attest to this.The CA95 on exact same settings sounded somehow better to me than the CA65. Which is the main reason I decided to get the CA95 over the CA65, although I play exclusively over headphones at home and have no need for the soundboard at all.

between CA65 and Ca95 that is. I think the remark above about longer keys are about the difference between RM3 and GF, so that would be a comparison between CA 63/93 and the new series. In that case the sound should be different too (?).

So:CA65/95 comparison over headphones = same in touch and soundCA63/93 comparison over headphone against the CA65/95 = difference in touch AND sound

My local dealer told me the touch is not the same between CA65 and CA95. CA95 has Grand Feel(GF) with longer pivot points therefore it cannot be the same touch. Does Anyone agree?

Unfortunately your local dealer is incorrect.

The CA95 and CA65 keyboard actions are identical - they are both 'Grand Feel' (GF).

The previous generation CA93/CA63 models utilised the 'RM3 Grand' action, but differed in that the CA93 featured let-off, while the CA63 did not. This would potentially cause a slight difference in touch due to the let-off resistance felt when playing very gently.

However, in order to simplify product line-ups, we (Kawai) decided to make let-off a standard feature on the 'Grand Feel' and 'Responsive Hammer II' actions (currently used in the CA95/CA65 and CN34/CN24/ES7 respectively) - I believe our dealers and customers appreciate this decision.

Thank you for your verification, James. May I ask how many watts of output for the amps and speakers on the CA65 and CA95? Why are the speakers a tad smaller on the newer model CA95 versus the older model CA93? Did I miss anything on the specs?

James, Could you give us some authentic information about this, (or otherwise just your opinion) please, would be helpful? Thank You.

If the CA95 and CA65 are both played with the same settings through anidentical pair of headphones, the output is the same.

Originally Posted By: Kenboi2

May I ask how many watts of output for the amps and speakers on the CA65 and CA95? Why are the speakers a tad smaller on the newer model CA95 versus the older model CA93? Did I miss anything on the specs?

The total output power of the CA95 and CA93 is the same (both 135W).However, the CA95 and CA93 speaker outpur power is a little different, due to technical reasons that I cannot explain here. Really, it's not something to be concerned about.